Sunrise System SRS 320 2 in 1 Natural Light Alarm Clock plus SAD Lightbox

This lightbox is a lot better than I thought it would be after unpacking it and feeling it's somewhat flimsy weight. The brightness is excellent, the menu straightforward to use and the timer, snooze and weekday alarm settings really do let me use it in any situation I can imagine, both for waking me up in the morning and also to get a dose of light during the day without having to fumble around with the stopwatch settings on my phone.My only complaints are minor: Due to the light weight, the box tends to slip off my nightstand when I try to hit any button with just one hand - it needs the other hand to hold the lamp in place. The other is that the LED light is rather directional - if you are looking at it from just a 15º angle you will not get the full benefit, so positioning takes some care. Also for obvious reasons it's nearly impossible to read the display while the light is on full brightness, although I'm not sure much could be done about that.And some minor benefits that mattered to me:- keeps clock and settings when powered off briefly (I carry mine from bedroom to my desk regularly, so this is important)- adjustable backlight with auto-dim- very low power use and expected long lifetime

I don’t rate this product because it uses a certain type of bulb that only delivers full brightness (at the intensity you’d need to gain any light therapy benefits) when the lamp is angled precisely at your eyes. Sounds odd but the way it distributes it’s light is very concentrated and your face has to be in the precise position (difficult to achieve when you’re asleep) to get the required effect, otherwise I can’t see how it would be nearly bright enough to wake you up. A much better option would be to buy Sunrise Systems’ sunrise alarm clock where you plug in your own lamp and then get a powerful directional lamp that you can angle at your bed. I’ve tried this alternative for years and it works really well. Just tried this newer combined SAD light alarm clock as an experiment, but it’s not nearly as effective because of the strange bulbs they use.

The very unnatural white light is horrible. The clock feels and looks cheap. The alarm sound is horrendously awful. Not at all worth the money. Setting it isn't nearly as bad as the other reviews suggest.

The first impressions when unpacking this item weren't great - it looked and felt cheap. I didn't think it looked as attractive as other sunrise alarm clocks before ordering online, but thought this would be better from a functional point of view. And at the price of this item, I was expecting much better quality.The alarm clock was buggy - woke me up at 6am on Saturday instead of 8am, which was the time set for all the week days. Also, you have to press the buttons quite hard to make something happen. When standing on my wooden bedside table, it would just slide backwards when I tried to turn the alarm off with just one hand. The alarm sound itself is quite harsh and definitely won't be everybody's cup of tea - wasn't mine at least, although it does inspire you to turn it off immediately and get up! The light is also a very harsh white light, so it isn't the best if you also want to use it as a bedside table lamp.On the tin, it has all the features and settings I wished for and it did seem to help me get up more refreshed in the morning. I used the alarm functionality for 4 days to give it a decent try. In the end I decided to return the item for the reasons above.

Expensive, bought to help with SAD unsure if it does as its a long term thing

As an SAD sufferer who has a job that requires me to work from home several days a week, I was struggling to drag myself out of bed in the mornings, or to stay awake once I did get out of bed. So I reluctantly forked out the money for the sunrise alarm and I'm so glad I did. I am now able to get out of bed at 7.15 am and stay awake and alert all day. You can alter how long it takes for the light to get to full brightness and the alarm beeps to make sure you wake up once it is at full, although I normally wake up before it beeps. It is much brighter and smaller than my old SAD light so is more effective and takes up less space. My only niggle with it is that the six buttons have a lot of functions to cope with which makes things quite complicated, e.g. you have to turn the alarm off completely in order to change any of the settings, which means that you then have to be careful to remember to turn it back on afterwards. However, I don't feel this is enough of a problem to take a whole star off as generally I'm very pleased with it.

Furious to receive a letter this morning headed 'Zero % vat goods - self declaration LEGAL REQUIREMENT' with a statement that if I don't sign it, I will receive a VAT bill! The letter says this is 'as per the description of the SRS320 - 2 in 1 light box on Amazon.co.uk' I saw no such notification when I ordered (and wouldn't have ordered it had I seen one). On checking the entry now, I still can't see any such notification. It is an underhand sales practise and I do not recommend buying from this company.As for the lamp, I bought it for my daughter who suffers from various conditions that mean she does not sleep well. It hasn't helped her at all. The light is bright and unpleasant - not at all a feeling of waking gently and being ready for the day. I am trying it with my son in case he finds it better, but suspect that I will be returning it for a refund.

Well it certainly wakes you up, but it is a bit unsettling. The quality of the light is the same as for camera floodlights and there is something alien about the LCDs. I also have a Lumie and a Phillips and the Phillips (with the sound of waves, forest etc) is definitely the best.What is good about the Sunrise is that you can program it for different times on each day of the week, so (for example) you can be an hour later at weekends.